Spock kept the first gift he’d ever received because his mother told him it was a traditional practice. He carried it with him because he hoped to encounter that person again. When he did, the person that gave him that gift did not remember him, at least at first. A story of how a meeting as children affects the lives of Kirk and Spock and leads them back to each other time and time again, until they finally come together years later as T’hy’la.

During the Earthbound years, between The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan, Kirk and Spock go to see a martial arts demonstration which brings strange feelings and desires into their shared awareness. The problem is addressed via unorthodox means.

Notes: contains martial arts babble and an exposition on my own headcanon of an apocryphal character.

Warning: a kink, but I won't tell you what it is. Read at your own risk!